Mookie Recap

Wow. Just wow. First Mookie played, first won. I should just retire now.

I wasn't even going to play last night, but when I donked out of the live riverchasers game after an hour, I decided to register. At the very least, I would say hi to some of the folks I might get to meet this weekend in Vegas. Early on, I tried to play my typically tight game and use that to make some plays. Yeah, that worked real well and I found myself hovering near the bottom 5 for most of the second 1/2 hour with about T1500.

On the last hand before the break, I decided that I was tired of riggstad and HighOnPoker stealing my BB so I shoved over HOP with AQd and chipped up ever so slightly. Then, there were two hands that stand out that got me out of desparation. First, Alceste limps from the SB after everyone folds around and I check my QJo. When the flop comes QJx, he check calls my flop bet and we both check the Q on the turn. After a meaningless river card, he pots and I shove. He calls and tables JJ. Ouch. Boat over boat. Actually, the only way he would have won that pot was if he raised pf. With my chips, I was calling any bet with top 2 on the flop. I think I like the fact that I didn't know how badly I needed that other Q until after it came.

The second hand came around the very next time I was in the BB. It folds to riggstad on the button and he standard raises my blind for the 624th time. I pot reraise with 77, basically commiting myself to the hand, but I figure I am no worse than a coin flip. He puts me all-in with KQc and my pp holds up, effectively crippling him. Whew. From there, I did a lot folding and enough stealing to keep up with the blinds.

Fortunately enough, the first time one of my raises didn't take the pot pf, I was oop against jimdniacc with ATo. Flop came ten high and I checked my missed steal. He potted with 99, I moved in and he called and doubled me again. From there, I took down a bunch of pots pf, but generally did not want to get involved in a large pot without a hand.

I was able to increase my stack to over T20000 this way until I lost a race with PokerPeaker with 99 against his AK. Ouch. #2 stack back down to the money bubble with still around 16 remaining, but it wouldn't stay that way for long. Just a couple of hands later, I felted someone (can't remember who, sorry) with 99 against 77 and then retrieved my chips from PP with my only AA of the night against his 88 and we started the final table.

It wasn't too long until the money bubble burst thanks to moondrops just running over the table, building his stack to over 50K. I was in the high 20's and no one else was over 20K.

Then Waffles popped in.

I have absolutely no idea what happened, but moondrops got completely tilted and said he was going all in every hand until he busted. And he did. Every hand. Finally, even though there were still 6 left, I got fed up and decided to call him with JackAce. He actually had 77 and I was off to the races for my tournament life. Jack on the turn or river sealed the deal and he proceeded to donk the rest off to bayne within another hand or two.

Chips were certainly an effective weapon at this particular final table as I don't remember a single one of my raises getting called. So when we got down to 4, I had over half the chips in play and was able to make a few loose calls when I had the right odds and probable live cards to go with them. I almost busted corron10 when he pushed with AQ and I turned two pair with J9, only to see him straighten out on the river. Ick.

He finally made another stand with 44 and I decided to call with A3h. Flopped bottom pair and the flush draw, and got there on the river. I started heads up with bayne with a 3:1 chip advantage, and we mostly played cautiously for the first 10 or 15 hands, much to the dismay of the liquored up LPR crew. We traded chips back and forth until bayne raised pf and I called on the button with JTo. Flop was QJ4 and when I bet the pot, he insta-shoved. For some reason, I really thought I was good and called. J9s.

All in all, it was quite the unusual tournament for me. I actually won races. And except for the boat over boat hand, I can't really say I was involved in a suckout either way the whole night. Thanks to Mookie for hosting, and to ck for her final table support. I suppose Waffles was sort of routing for me after corron was eliminated, but I wouldn't put money on it.

Hopefully, I'll get to hang with some of you degenerates this weekend. Leave a comment if you'll be in Vegas this weekend. I'm happy to meet any and all.

And there go another 5 minutes of your life you're never getting back.